CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF THE REPLICATION ORIGIN (ORIC) OF THE SPIROPLASMA-CITRI CHROMOSOME AND CONSTRUCTION OF AUTONOMOUSLY REPLICATING ARTIFICIAL PLASMIDS
Fc. Ye et al., CLONING AND SEQUENCING OF THE REPLICATION ORIGIN (ORIC) OF THE SPIROPLASMA-CITRI CHROMOSOME AND CONSTRUCTION OF AUTONOMOUSLY REPLICATING ARTIFICIAL PLASMIDS, Current microbiology, 29(1), 1994, pp. 23-29
A 5.6-kbp fragment of Spiroplasma citri DNA containing the dnaA gene h
as been cloned and sequenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis shows that
this fragment harbors the genes for the replication initiator protein
(dnaA), the beta subunit of DNA polymerase III (dnaN), and the DNA gyr
ase subunits A and B (gyrA and gyrB). The arrangement of these genes,
dnaA-dnaN-gyrB-gyrA A, is similar to that found in all Gram-positive b
acterial genomes studied so far, except that no recF gene was found be
tween dnaN and gyrB. Several DnaA-box consensus sequences were found u
pstream of dnaA and in the dnaA-dnaN intergenic region. The dnaA regio
n with the flanking DnaA-boxes and the tetracycline resistance determi
nant, tetM, were linked into a circular recombinant DNA. This DNA was
able to replicate autonomously when introduced by electroporation into
S. citri cells. These experiments show that the dnaA region with the
DnaA-boxes is the origin of replication of S. citri and can be used to
construct gene vectors.